Rangers Hire Donnie Ecker As Bench Coach & Offensive Coordinator
ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers have hired Donnie Ecker as bench coach and offensive coordinator of the club.
An official announcement was made by the Rangers, along with the hiring of Josh Bonifay as the club's new farm director, on Monday.
Ecker, 35, has spent the past two seasons as hitting coach of the San Francisco Giants. Ecker also spent 2019 as assistant hitting coach of the Cincinnati Reds and previously spent time in the St. Louis Cardinals player development department. His role with the Rangers will include some of the traditional bench coach duties, along with implementing a "top-down" hitting program from the big leagues down throughout the minor leagues.
This unique role also allows the Rangers to delegate some other the responsibilities to the rest of the coaching staff. Rangers president of baseball operations Jon Daniels specifically mentioned added responsibilities for Corey Ragsdale as field coordinator.
Ecker also has ties with Rangers minor league hitting coordinator Cody Atkinson, as the two worked together in 2019 in Cincinnati. That familiarity should help preach the same message from the big league club all the way down throughout the different levels of the farm system.
Ecker, who was selected by the Rangers in the 22nd round of the 2007 MLB Draft, was very popular in San Francisco and envisioned it as a place he'd be for a long time. But after interviewing with the Rangers, it became clear that this was an opportunity he couldn't pass up.
"When I went into this journey, getting to know new leadership in Texas, the commitment here was just very clear," Ecker said. "It takes little time to backchannel and interview them to figure out a good deal about Chris Woodward. It takes little time and conversation to figure out how clear Chris Young is about this vision. It takes very little time to understand the commitment that Jon Daniels and ownership have to bringing this city and fan base a winner.
"This was, in many ways, a very difficult decision. And then, in so many ways, there was no choice. It was the only decision. I understand the challenge here. I really understand the people here. I'm just really excited about getting to work."
Regarding the bench coach position, manager Chris Woodward set expectations for the person that fills the role. Specifically, he wanted the bench coach to be someone who can be his "outlet" in the clubhouse, giving a very young team another approachable person that shares a similar vision of how a championship team plays.
"We share a very, very common understanding of how we want to see things done on a daily basis," Woodward said. "I think the human being and understanding the vision that we share, just in the conversation and how to motivate players and how to get this thing moving in the right direction on a personal level in that clubhouse. I think that's probably going to be one of his biggest strengths, communicating and connecting with players and keeping our staff connected as well. It's something I know he's very passionate about, and wants to learn and grow in. I can't wait to see that happen."
During Ecker's time as hitting coach of the Giants, San Francisco had the largest leap in barrel percentage from 2019 to 2021. The Giants also went from a .694 OPS in 2019 (second-worst in the National League) to an NL-best .769 OPS in 2021. Now, he'll take on the challenge of coaching a much younger team that was near the bottom in every major offensive category in 2021. That will come with a new set of challenges in a day and age where baseball has never been so detail-oriented.
"We have a responsibility to have the answers in our back pocket. Sometimes we think those answers are what's coming out of the computer. And to a degree, it does start to point us in the right direction. We have a responsibility to do the homework, to go into the deep end to have those answers. But just know that whatever human being I'm about to step in front of, I'm always operating with incomplete information until I know how he sees the world, how he fills himself in it. How we blend those things is very important. Step 1 is to start to get to know these guys.
"Keeping things simple for the sake of being simple is irresponsible on the world stage when you're going against the best athletes in the world. We better know exactly how we're going to be attacked. We better know what our players do well. There's a preparedness that we are required to have. How we scrub it, how we digest it, how we clear the fog to choose who we give that to and how we give to, that to me is the separator. Just data and analytics is a part of the story. We have to humanize it."
The Rangers temporarily hit the pause button on hiring a hitting coach to give time to bring Ecker aboard. Now that everything is official, the Rangers will spend the coming days and weeks continuing their search for a major league hitting coach and assistant hitting coach, a process that Ecker will have a significant role.
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